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From Butterflies to Hurricanes, and everything in between.

Practice Makes Perfect.

So, anyone who actively reads this blog knows that about 3 months ago, I purchased a bass guitar. I’ve played it almost everyday (excluding these past few days, learning the ukulele) and I thought I was ok at the bass, emphasis on “ok”. Like, not that bad, kind of good “ok”. So, my friend plays in a church band, but they are separating soon because their singer/guitarist is moving to florida. He asked me to play in the “farewell concert” they’re having in a few weeks and I said “sure, just don’t expect anything spectacular”. I mean, yeah I can play a few covers but actually doing a show? In front of people I don’t know? Yeah, I wasn’t sure about that.

So today was the first rehearsal, and it got off to a rocky start. Not because I was bad or anything, it’s just that a few people were late because it was cancelled because of the snow, but then an hour later they decided to do it anyway. My friend said that he would teach me the bass parts for the songs we’d be playing, so I wasn’t too worried. Well, we got there, set up, and just went into it. That’s exactly what happened. No one on one “here, Khris, this is your bass line”. Luckily, I knew a little bit about chords and things of that nature, so I caught on, and created my own bassline. They said I wasn’t bad. And that’s pretty much what happened for every song we played. I had to just keep coming up with basslines. I was doing pretty good, or so I was told, but that’s not even where the best part was.

As stated before, this was my first time playing with other musicians, and after we were done rehersing the songs, we had a little jam session. I heard those drums, and my fingers did all the work. I was playing basslines from rock to funk, and it was amazing! I surprised myself so much, and it was so inspiring to play with other musicians. Everything was so natural. We’d all play our own little things and it’d all go together perfectly. The muscles in my hands are a little tight from playing so much, but I don’t even mind. Their words are just hanging in my ears “that bassline is awesome!” “turn that bass up!” “you hear that groove!” And needless to say they were all pretty shocked when they found out I had been playing for less than a year, let alone 3 months.

As a matter of fact, they aren’t even sure if they want the band to break up yet. They said that today sounded so great they want to try to keep it alive. Their singer/guitarist is leaving, but my friend (the one who asked me to play) can replace him on guitar, they have a female that can sing, and they said if they keep it together, they want me on bass, if I’m able to do it. This was a pretty good “first time” practicing with others.